Pepperoni Pizza

I am a bona fide pepperoni pizza girl. Sure, I’ll eat other varieties without batting an eye (I’m still drooling over the Portobello Pesto Pizza), but my heart belongs to pepperoni pizza. It’s comfort food for my sports-loving soul. There’s nothing better than enjoying a cheesy pepperoni pizza while watching Sunday football or a hockey game. I’ve made countless pepperoni pizzas at home, and I finally realized that I had yet to share my favorite recipe here. It’s nothing terribly fancy – my favorite pizza dough, a very simple sauce, and lots of pepperoni and cheese.

There is one “secret” to my pepperoni pizza. The one and only pet peeve I have with getting a pepperoni pizza from a local shop is that many times there is a river of grease from the pepperoni sitting on top of the cheese. Yuck! To remedy that, I do this super quick trick:

Take a large plate and line it with a double layer of paper towel. Lay all of your pepperoni on top.

Cover it with another double layer of paper towels.

Microwave for 30 to 45 seconds, and voila! You have pulled the majority of the grease out of the pepperoni!

This definitely isn’t a necessary step, but one that I always do – it just tastes so much better without that layer of grease. And since I pull most of the grease out, I nestle the pepperoni under the cheese so that it doesn’t get too burnt and crispy on top. Again, personal preference so feel free to do what you like!

4 to 8 ounces (1 to 2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese (or mix of mozzarella and provolone), depending how how cheesy you like your pizza

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Make the Pizza Dough: Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.

2. Process the flour and salt in a large food processor, pulsing to combine. Continue pulsing while pouring the liquid ingredients (holding back a few tablespoons) through the feed tube. If the dough does not readily form a ball, add the remaining liquid and continue to pulse until a ball forms. Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 30 seconds longer.

3. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand for a few strokes to form a smooth, round ball. Put the dough into a deep oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.

4. Assemble the Pizza: Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven (if using). Heat oven to 500 degrees for at least 30 minutes.

5. While the oven is preheating, prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat. When the garlic starts to sizzle, add the crushed tomatoes. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and set aside.

6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball and cover it with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes. (You only need one ball of dough for this recipe, so at this point you can wrap one ball of dough in plastic wrap, put in a ziploc bag and freeze for another day – just move it to the refrigerator the morning you plan to use it or thaw at room temperature for 2-3 hours).

7. Flatten the dough ball into a disk using the palms of your hands. Starting at the center of the disk and working outward, use your fingertips to press the dough until it is about ½-inch thick. Holding the center in place, stretch the dough outward. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and stretch again. Repeat until the dough reaches a diameter of 12 inches. Use your palm to press down and flatten the thick edge of the dough.Transfer your prepared pizza dough to a pizza peel, parchment-lined baking sheet or pizza pan (whichever you are using).

8. Spread ¾ cup of the sauce over the pizza dough, leaving a ½-inch border uncovered. Place the pepperoni slices evenly over the sauce, and then top with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Slide the dough onto the heated stone, or place your baking sheet or pizza pan into the oven.

9. Bake until the crust edges brown and the cheese is golden brown in spots, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and serve (be careful, it will be hot!).

*Note: The sauce recipe makes enough for 4 pizzas but I can only ever find crushed tomatoes in 28-ounce cans (the bane of my existence!). If you are only making one pizza, you can portion out the rest and freeze it for another time.

That microwave trick is WONDERFUL! And this recipe looks like simplicity at its finest, i truly dont remember the last time i had pizza (kerazy i know!) so this is calling out to me big time 🙂 gorgeous!

I have been trying to make home made pizza lately, and doing okay, but this tip will really help! I love pineapple on my pizza, there is just something about the salty and the sweet that makes my tastebuds happy.

I have a question about the difference between regular yeast and instant yeast. I have looked everywhere for instant yeast and have not been able to find it. Can you please share a name brand that I could ask my grocer to carry?

Thanks much, I love all of your recipes. This weekend I am tackling the oatmeal yeast bread!

Your pizza looks so perfect! I love where the mozzarella is browned in places. Great trick with the pepperoni! I hate the extra grease so usually make another kind of pizza. I’m definitely trying your secret 🙂

Pizza is the best food ever invented. I could eat it for every meal, every day!

I have yet to meet a pizza that I didn’t like, but my favourite take-out pizza is Hawaiian. I make two kinds of homemade pizza. One is topped with tomato sauce, chorizo and maybe another kind of pepperoni or sausage if I have any around, green & red peppers, and onions. The other is a Thai pizza with peanut sauce, lots of veggies (usually bean sprouts, red & green pepper, green onions, bok choy), and sliced almonds or chopped cashews. Both are covered with mozzarella, and I always make a whole wheat pizza dough – healthier and more flavourful than white dough.

Try soaking up the grease from a take-out pepperoni pizza with a paper towel. As long as the cheese isn’t fresh-from-the-oven hot, it won’t stick to the paper towel.

The pizza looks delicious and I bet it is. It sounds simple enough. I use to make my own pizza’s years ago, but for some reason gave up on it. I guess by the time everyone had their likes and dislikes of the kind they wanted, it was to costly. I’m going to try your recipe some weekend now since it is just the two of us and see how it turns our. My favorite is pepperoni and jalepeno pizza. Thanks for the recipe.

What a great idea with the pepperoni. Way better than using napkins to soak up the grease after it’s cooked! Pizza looks great! And your mushroom pesto pizza was awesome… I’d say it’s a tie between that and a spinach artichoke pizza as my fave

Pizza Hut is the worst for being way too greasy.
I’m in total agreement with you on the pepperoni issue. Pizza isn’t pizza if it doesn’t have pepperoni on it.
Although I just smoked some homemade Canadian bacon, so I’ll be trying my first pizza on the grill this weekend. And of course I might as well use the bacon.

This looks really good and I normally don’t care for pepperoni pizza (could be the river of grease). I would like to make homemade pizza but I don’t have a food processor. Could I just use the dough hook on my mixer?

Hi Traci, Yes you can definitely use the stand mixer! Here are the instructions for doing so:

Follow the recipe for Pizza Dough through step 1. Omit step 2 and instead place the flour and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle. Briefly combine the dry ingredients at low speed. Slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms. Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and proceed with the recipe.

Guess what’s for dinner tonight? I actually went to get meat specifically for this. I’ve been craving a good pizza(a good crust is super important!) and this looks awesome 😀 Love your trick with the pepperoni!

Reading this post just gives me warm fuzzies! I feel like we could be best friends. pizza is my favorite food and I always claim it is because it comes in so many different forms and varieties that you can eat it multiple times and not one is the same. But…with that being said, a warm and cheesy pepperoni pizza is well, uncomparable

I totally love your idea of putting the pepperoni in the microwave real quick before adding it to the pizza. My fave part of the pepperoni pizza are the crispy pepperoni pieces…and your microwave idea helps to make the pepperoni even more crispy. Thank you for that tip! (my fave type of pizza is good ole pepperoni).

I happen to have a Cooks Illustrated cookbook that has this recipe in it. I had never made it until I saw this post. I didn’t have time to make the original version, but they did have a “quick” version that I made last night. It was such a good crust! I can’t wait to make the regular recipe.

For folks without a pizza/baking stone, I have found that my cast iron griddle does a great job (and I actually like it better than my baking stone — I get a crisper bottom crust).

I love that you microwave the pepperoni before putting it on the pizza — the first time that I did that, I discovered how much I like hot crisp pepperoni (almost as good as bacon, but a whole lot easier! 😉 And this is now one of my snacks when watching a game.

I also like my cast iron griddle for heating up leftover pizza (on top of the stove). I really hate left over pizza heated in the microwave . . . I heat the griddle on top of the stove, put the pizza slices on top, cover with a domed lid and let heat on medium.

I want you to know how much I love your blog! I have made a couple of your recipes so far, and this pizza looks so amazing that it may have to be next in line! I love pepperoni pizza, but I also love the addition of feta cheese (it gets all warm and a little melty, mm!) or banana peppers on top. Thank you so much for all of these wonderful recipes! 🙂

Thanks for the recipe. I made it the other night and think this is my favorite crust. I also love the pepperoni suggestion – it works! However, while the sauce was good, I’m going to add a bit of sugar and salt next time to enhance the flavor.